Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 178 - 34: Hunter Frog_1

Chapter 178: Chapter 34: Hunter Frog_1

(Happy New Year everyone, first update of the year. ps, double update today)

A dark figure crashed heavily onto the ground, letting out a dull thud, which stirred countless dried leaves into a flower-dispersing whirlwind in the sky. At the same time, as Dora jumped away from the dark figure, Catherine’s shield had already been half-covered in front of her as she advanced to one side of the shadow and slashed her sword onto it.

With a "bang" sound, like the dull sound of a bowstring breaking, the one-handed sword in Catherine’s hand was directly bounced off by the dark figure causing a powerful backlash that made her step back three or four steps before she could stand firmly again. The dried leaves drifted down again, and people could now see the original appearance of the dark figure.

This was a python over ten meters long. Its scales were brown and identical in color to the tree trunk. Before this, the snake had been lying quietly on a horizontal thick branch, its color making it difficult for people to distinguish whether it was a branch or a snake. When an animal passed underneath, the python would drop straight down from the branch, entangling or crushing its prey, then swallowing it whole. Unfortunately, its hunting attempt this time had failed, and it got nothing.

Catherine’s sword attack seemed to have no effect on the python. The thick python didn’t feel anything unusual at all. Its tail, which was still hanging high on the tree branch, slowly contracted upwards. The giant head gradually rose, eventually returning to its original branch, lying still, waiting for the next prey to pass by.

"Let’s go." Pannis patted Catherine: "This is a tree python, the laziest python. If it fails to attack, it basically won’t make additional attacks. Just ignore it."

"This damn thing, it scared me." Dora growled threateningly at the python under the tree, but the giant python on the tree didn’t even look at her. It closed its eyes as if it were dozing off, ignoring Dora’s provocation.

"The forest is a three-dimensional world." Pannis whispered to everyone: "Be aware not only of the surrounding environment and the ground under your feet, but also the sky above your head. The dangers overhead are no less than those around you. Many dangerous predators hide in the trees waiting for prey to pass by, so be very careful. For example, look to your right. Night Owl, you come closer, you are too close over there. Luckily they are asleep."

"There’s nothing there, just an empty patch of ground." Lina looked for a long time and said in confusion: "What exactly are we looking at?"

"The fallen leaves on the ground." Pannis pointed to the empty ground that Lina had mentioned: "Look closely, observe carefully."

"Hiss, that’s insidious." Lina finally saw it, frowned and spat out: "What is this thing? Oh, I remember, this is... that... right, a leaf disk?"

"Yes, that’s it." Pannis nodded: "A kind of animal that looks least like an animal."

Leaf disks are a type of flat, nearly circular, small, group-living animal. From above, their colors are no different from withered leaves. When a large pile of leaf disks lies on the leaf litter layer, it’s hard to distinguish between fallen leaves and them. The backs of the leaf disks are very hard, and their flat, circular bodies have a ring of dense serrated keratin layers on the side, with quite sharp teeth. When they feel the ground tremble as prey approach, leaf disks will jump up on the spot. After jumping, their bodies spin swiftly in the air like a whirl of circular saws, which can easily tear through the thick skin of large animals and cut through hard bones. Their mouths are on the bottom of their bodies, so once the skin is cut open, they will go into a frenzy, gnawing at the muscles and tissues under the skin. Even some Gold Rank magical beasts, if not careful, can be easily killed and eaten by them.

Along the way, Pannis pointed out, one by one, the animals hidden and sleeping in their [path. Among them, a small part of them are unique creatures of the Death Fog Sea, whose names or habits Pannis also didn’t know. Everyone listened enthusiastically, even Elrad at the front of the team set aside some energy to listen to Pannis’s explanation. After all, he hadn’t spotted several of the creatures until Pannis pointed them out. Among all, Vivian was the most involved, taking notes and sketching as she listened, every creature unique to the Death Fog Sea, she would draw one by one and record their characteristics. Occasionally, she would whisper to Lina, get an answer, and then continue writing.

"What are you writing?" Pannis peered over and found that there were already more than a dozen pages of records in the notebook. Various shapes, numbers, and words were densely packed, making it headache-inducing to look at.

"A research record of creatures unique to the peripheral Misty Forest of the Death Fog Sea." Vivian didn’t even have time to look up, not even to brush off Pannis, but her voice was full of excitement and fanaticism: "These are firsthand research materials, they must be recorded, and who knows when they might come in handy. I’ve never had the opportunity to study these before, and now that I finally have the opportunity, I have to make a clear record. This is the most precious knowledge and wealth."

"Never underestimate a mage scholar’s zeal for novel knowledge." Catherine said leisurely: "This is a truth that the people of the City of Knowledge have summed up over hundreds of years. They can throw away their lives for knowledge, let alone something as small as recording while travelling."

"Shush." Whilst listening, Elrad didn’t forget his duty as the guide and immediately raised his hand to make the team go quiet.

No one said a word, no one moved either. The forest fell into silence, only the rustling sound of breeze blowing through leaves could be heard distinctly in the quiet surroundings. In the middle of the tranquility, from the distant forest came a clamorous sound of stepping on fallen leaves, the sound was chaotic and intense, continuously reverberated. The noise of crushed leaves continued for five minutes before gradually diminishing and disappearing into the distance. Elrad heaved a heavy sigh and muttered under his breath: "Hunter Frogs, they have passed, let’s hurry."

The Hunter Frog is also a unique creature of the Death Fog Sea that lives in groups. A community often consists of hundreds of Hunter Frogs coexisting. This type of amphibian is a land frog, its major difference from ordinary frogs is its sharp teeth which can tear flesh and gnaw on larger creatures. The hunting method of Hunter Frog is very distinctive, instead of using its tongue to attack like regular frogs, it possesses a unique distant attack method. When feeding, they purposefully ingest small pieces of bone, not swallowing them into their stomach, but storing them in a special organ. During hunting, the Hunter Frog will eject a stored bone piece, the force of its spitting is very powerful, equal to the attack strike of a professional of the same rank, its shooting range even reaches up to fifty meters. Hundreds of Hunter Frogs’ simultaneous ejecting forms a covering rain of bullets, even a mighty Gold Rank magical beast encountering this creature have to choose between evasion or death.

"Wait, what do Hunter Frogs look like?" Vivian wanted to record while hurrying on the way, even if it meant wasting magic to sustain the Floating Spell for a long time, allowing herself to float on the layer of fallen leaves to save time exploring the path: "Describe it, are there any specific features?"

Everyone advanced through the Misty Forest in a rather relaxed mood, getting farther and farther into the forest.

Time passed quickly; the light in the forest became increasingly intense, the temperature gradually rose, the scent of rotten leaves under the heat started to spread slowly, permeating the forest air. Short-lived insects and ordinary creatures used their remaining lifetime to call out incessantly in the thick forest in the late autumn. Normal schedule birds also flew around under noon sunlight to prepare for the winter. Within the dense forest, a team of ten people had been advancing in the Misty Forest for nearly five hours. According to Elrad, they would be able to safely pass through this dangerous area in at most fifty more minutes. This news made everyone feel truly revitalized, after all, during the past five hours, under Pannis’s introduction the group had seen many dangerous creatures. Although they were all sleeping and did not pose any immediate threats, the psychological pressure from passing by these creatures was quite significant.

"This is so exaggerated, there are so many species living in just one forest." Lina looked back at the sloth they just passed, still in shock, "And they’re all so vicious."

"Forests are often the places with the highest density of species," Pannis replied, "even more than the ocean. This place is still good compared to the other two forests, where creatures are more vicious and many times you don’t even know how you died."

"Like what?" Lina asked curiously: "How vicious are they?"

"Well, once a Legendary Rank professional entered the periphery of the Forest of Death, he encountered a tiny worm, thinner than a pinkie finger, that hung from a tree with a thread. He brushed the thread away with a gloved hand and moved on," Pannis said, "Then he died."

"Ah? How did he die?" Lina asked in surprise.

"Who knows?" Pannis shrugged: "I did say that you don’t even know how you died in that forest, you could die at any time."

"Have you been there?" Catherine asked nearby in a teasing manner.

"Uh, friends told me, after all, I know some elf friends, they told me," Pannis chuckled awkwardly in reply.

The three girls snickered with their hands covering their mouths, amused the mercenaries next to them who had no idea why the girls were laughing. Just as they were laughing, Pannis suddenly motioned for everyone to quiet down, Elrad, who was leading the way, retreated several steps quickly and returned to the group. His face somewhat grim: "It’s the Hunter Frogs again, they are just passing through here, we mustn’t make any noise."

In the silence, the continuous noise of crushed leaves came from a distance, the sound was getting louder and closer, quickly it reached near the group, Vivian finally got her wish to see what a Hunter Frog looked like.

This type of frog is very large, its body parts were larger than a home dinner plate, with a diameter of about half a meter. Its body was gray-brown, its belly was much larger than average frogs, it can inhale more gas, to spit out high-speed bone bullets. Their mouths full of tiny sharp teeth, their two protruding eyes had become small and grayish-white from degeneration, they had clearly lost their function. Hunter Frogs hopped on the ground to move, their hopping power was not very strong, they didn’t advance quickly either, but still maintained a certain speed, slowly passing by the ten people.

The line of Hunter Frogs was very long, continuous without a break. Everyone’s expressions seemed displeased because they found out that this group of Hunter Frogs was exceptionally large in number, not a couple of hundreds, but more than a thousand. Being surrounded by over a thousand magical beasts made everyone very nervous, yet they still dared not make any movements.